Necessary Good, Unnecessary Evil | No rest For Wounded Souls [Bucky Barnes]

To new, not illegal beginnings

"Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge."
-Scott Adams

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Nova's POV

I get dragged downstairs by Wanda and Peter, my eyes still half-closed and my hair all over the place.
"I don't know why you woke me up, but the place better be on fire or worse." I groan, careful not to trip over the steps.
"Trust me, it's worth it." Wanda chuckles.
"Yeah, we worked on this all morning!" Peter chirps, walking backward through the hall.
I hear Christmas music playing from the shared area, and Wanda takes a red hat out of her pocket, putting it on my head.
I frown, looking at her funny, but she just walks in.
"Oh my..." I gasp, seeing everyone standing in the common area.
"No one can go without celebrating at least one Christmas. Not under my watch." Nat sings, dragging me to the table.
"Merry Christmas," Steve walks over to me, leaving a soft kiss on my cheek.
"Love the hat," he chuckles, looking at my head.
"Nice sweater," I point at his sweater. A reindeer with a red nose covers a big part of his chest.
"Nat matched us." He sighs and looks over my head.
I turn around, seeing Bucky wearing the same sweater, and judging from his face, he's not a fan of it.
"Alright, folks," Tony walks in wearing a red suit, and I can barely keep a straight face, "we have a full day, a shit ton of things to do, so let's start by eating this wonderful breakfast, strawberry free option available," Tony announces, glancing over at Pepper and winking.

We sit together at the table, enjoying our breakfast and chatting with each other.
My eyes meet Bucky's, and he gives me a half-smile.
I get lost in my head, the soft chattering soothing my thoughts.
Maybe now I'm starting to understand what's so special about this day.
It gives a warm feeling of tranquility and joy. It feels like family.
Steve gently squeezes my hand under the table, and I look over at him.
"Is everything ok?" He mutters.
I keep my eyes fixed on his and feel my mouth dry.
I definitely miss being this close to him, and for an instant, I have to remind myself we're not alone.
"I left my sled on the helipad out there. I hope that's ok." I look over the hallway and see Happy in a Santa costume walking with a bag over his shoulder.
I barely keep in a laugh, covering my mouth with my hand.
"No problem, man," Tony chuckles, standing up.

We move back to the common area,  Happy drops the bag, taking out a lot of gifts.
He starts to pass out each one, and I end up with a pile of boxes.
I open the first one, and it's an instant camera.
"At least now we will hear you taking a picture." Nat scoffs, and I hug her laughing.
I proceed to open Steve's present, and it's a framed handmade portrait, and I'm genuinely surprised. 
I knew he was good at drawing, but never saw any of his work.
"You made this? It's beautiful, Steve," I ask, amazed, and he scratches the back of his head.
"Yeah, I had a pretty good model." He smirks, and a choir of whistles and laughs raises around us.
"Keep it low, old man," Tony scowls, and Steve looks at him worried.
Did I just witness Tony act like a father?
"Let the man shoot his shot," Sam bellows, patting Steve's shoulder.
I look over to Nat, and she shakes her head smiling.
"I really want to thank everyone for all these presents, and if you give me a second, I'll go grab yours." I'm glad I took care of this before everything happened.

I stand up and run upstairs to my room.
The last thing I got was Steve's present, and I really hope he will like this.
I open my closet and start grabbing all the boxes.
"Hey," I hear Bucky's voice and almost hit my head under the shelf.
"God, you scared me." I hold a hand to my chest, turning to face him.
"Sorry," He frowns and scratches his cheek.
"I wanted to give you this." He hands me a gift wrapped in golden wrapping paper.
"I got it yesterday and didn't have the time to give it to Happy." He shrugs.
"Oh, that was Happy?" I joke, and he crooks his head, looking at me with a lifted brow.
I take the gift and open it.
"I saw you have a lot of poetry between your books. I thought you would like something like that." He says, and I smile.
A collection of Russian poems. He gave me a collection of poems.
"I do. I love it," I whisper, leafing through the pages.
I look up, and he's smiling, "You know how to read Russian, right?" He frowns, and I roll my eyes up.
"If I have any trouble, I'll come bother you."
"Not a problem." He shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"I feel better about my gift for you now," I chuckle, handing him his gift.
"For me?" He hesitates, looking at the red present.
"Yeah, you're part of the team too." He nods, opening his gift.
"Il Principe?" He reads in a broken accent.
"I think you're going to like that. And you can come to me if you have any trouble." I smirk.
I know he speaks some Italian, but I also know he never really used it much.
He wets his lips, smirking, "you bet I will." He sighs and holds out his hand, helping me to carry the rest of the gifts downstairs.